Last season first-year John Carroll head coach Keith Rawlings led his Patriots to a 7-3 record in the MIAA B-Conference. It was the school's best record this decade, and Rawlings was well on his way to turning a perennial bottom feeder into a contender.

But Rawlings decided to resign in February after his two high-school-bound children chose to attend St. Paul's, which is a John Carroll rival. Feeling uncomfortable coaching at another MIAA B-Conference school, Rawlings left JC and became an assistant at St. Paul's.

That opened the door for Rich Stichel, 32, who was John Carroll's offensive coordinator last year. Stichel, a four-year letterman at McDaniel College, had previously been the head coach at New Town, a I-A school in Baltimore. He started the program in 2003 (after previously coaching at Kenwood and Sparrows Point) and led the team to a 31-20 record.

Two years ago, however, he wanted to move closer to home in Harford County. So he applied for the vacant head coaching position at John Carroll. The job went to Rawlings, but Stichel stayed on as the offensive coordinator. He implemented a triple-option offense, which produced 29 points per game last year. Stichel was twice named the Baltimore Ravens' high school coach of the week at New Town.

After one season as an assistant, Stichel is ready to become John Carroll's third different head coach in three years.

MdHigh publisher Dave Lomonico recently spoke with Stichel about his new position and how he hopes to continue what Rawlings started.

The main thing is getting the school involved. The students support some of our other sports, but not always the football program. And I can't blame them because in the two years before I got there they won a combined four games. But we've won in recent years and the students are starting to respond.

Also, our numbers in terms of participation are not where we want them to be. We can be competitive in the B-Conference with the boys we have playing football (about 50), but our goal is to one day get to the A-Conference like the rest of our school's sports.

Well, winning obviously changes things, but it's all about building relationships. It starts with the rec programs. We have to bring in talented kids who want to compete and get a good education.

Also, we'd like to get the players noticed more by college coaches. I think if recruiters start coming out here the kids will get motivated and interest will be drummed up.

We're going try our best to do just that. We're going to the rec councils, we're looking at the kids in our area and we're building relationships with the kids and the community.

We just had a middle school combine up at a local athletic club - there were 200 players there. We've gone to rec council registrations and started getting the word out. We've also started talking with a local middle school team called the Harco Horns. That should help as well.

Although you do have an advantage being the only private school out there, JC does compete in the MIAA conference with all those powerhouse Baltimore schools. From what I've heard, you guys are considered the redheaded stepchild of the MIAA (laughs).

Well, yeah, I do get that feeling. I don't think it has to do with location. It's just that John Carroll isn't even 100 years old yet like some of those traditional schools. We don't have the alumni base that those other schools have.

But we just have to keep trucking and eventually we'll make it to the level of some of those bigger A-Conference schools.

I was probably one of the last people to find out. He didn't even tell me about it until after his birthday in February.

You see, he has two sons who were ready to choose a high school. He gave them until February to make their choice. I thought the plan was for them to come to John Carroll, but they chose St. Paul's. So he's over there now with them.

Well, when Keith was hired last year I was actually one of the final three candidates for the job. I didn't get the job, obviously, but I did want to be closer to home out in Harford County. The opportunity arose when the athletic director at John Carroll called me and asked me to be an assistant. I jumped at it - I liked the idea of coaching in the MIAA - and came on as offensive coordinator.

And when Keith stepped down this year, the head job went right to me.

That's another thing about being a small, private school. A lot of our kids are multi-sport athletes and they're all playing spring sports. We have 50 boys on the football team and like 40 of the 50 returners are playing a spring sport. It's ridiculous.

To be honest with you, I like kids playing multiple sports. It keeps them competitive and active. And a lot of the kids still come in and work out after practice and if games get cancelled and such.

Of course, I'd love to have more kids in the weight room full-time. But we're not the only ones who have this problem. Most schools in the B-Conference have to deal with this.

I want to build a personal relationship with the kids and not just be looked at as the high-and-mighty head coach. I think getting to know your kids is important.

Also, I want to delegate more responsibilities to my assistants. At New Town, I tried to do everything myself and I learned the hard way you can't really do that.

Those are the two biggest things I'll change. And obviously I've gained experience, too. You learn those in-game situations and what you should call at a certain point.

I'm a student-athlete centered person. I want them to develop leadership on and off the field, accountability on and off the field and I want them to concentrate on academics. Also, faith is a big part of our mission here at JC. We're involved in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and it's something we take very seriously. Lastly, athletics and excelling on the field.

Those are our four cornerstones - leadership, academics, faith and athletics.

If I can help them become true student-athletes, I think, in turn, they'll give me everything they have.

On offense, we run that Navy triple-option. We want to be tough and physical; there's not many offensive systems tougher than Navy's.

And it's interesting - the reason I started running that offense was because at New Town there were a lot of selfish players initially and the triple option forced them to play together. I went down to Navy for a coaching clinic to see what the triple-option was all about, and it was perfect for getting guys to come together as a team. So I immediately adopted it and I've run it ever since.

It's really worked at John Carroll. Everybody relies on everyone else and no one is selfish.

Defensively, our objective is getting all 11 guys flying to the ball. We like to preach constant pursuit, going 100 miles per hour every play. We also want kids going for takeaway and turnovers.

This year, I expect to compete for a B-Conference championship even with the coaching turnover. We have some solid players coming back.

As for the years after that, we might be behind the 8-ball a little bit. I'm the third head coach in the last three years, so the recruiting sort of fell off. So unless we can step that up we might be down for a year or two. But we have a great freshman class coming in, so we'll be right back on track soon after that.

Our ultimate goal, though, is to get to that A-Conference and be competitive with those bigger schools in Baltimore.